Family of Dominican Republic prison hell mum in £30k fight for justice

Over the past seven months, Cardiff mum Nicole Reyes has lost everything – her husband, her home and her freedom.

Locked in a prison cell with two other women more than 4,000 miles from her children and family is a world away from the life Nicole Reyes dreamed of when she moved to the Dominican Republic nine years ago.

Living on a diet of prunes and crackers, she has spent the last nightmarish seven months in jail, first in the Puerto Plata part of the island and now in Santiago, after being arrested on suspicion of killing her husband.

But many months down the line and her mother Jeannette Clements, from Rumney in Cardiff, says the authorities have not yet charged her with any crime.

Nicole was arrested after her husband Jorge, 38, died in a crash on July 10 last year.

Jeannette explained how Nicole had been to visit friends at a hotel that night.

She said: “He was on his motorbike and she was in a Jeep.

“He was travelling in the middle of the road and she told him to get over to the other side because it was dangerous.”

She said he moved over but that some cars were coming the other way and so she slightly moved over but tipped the back end of the bike.

Jeannette, 61, said: “He’d always be laughing and joking on his motorbike. But he had no crash helmet on and no lights.”

She said her daughter realised he was under the Jeep and was screaming to people standing nearby for help.

But Jeannette claimed the culture there is not to help during an accident for fear of becoming involved or blamed.

She said Nicole, 37, asked police to take her to the hospital but that she was instead taken to the police station where officers told her Jorge was dead.

For the first six weeks, Jeanette said her daughter was kept in a prison in Puerto Plata.

She said: "She saw people being beaten and people shackled against the wall on chains."

She said the prison had no windows, that her daughter had to sleep on the floor with a bucket in the corner for a toilet.

Jeannette said they even had to send money so Nicole would be fed. In the meantime, Nicole hasn’t even had the chance to grieve for her husband.

“All she keeps saying is ‘I want to come out and grieve for him’,” she said. “If he was alive he would go crazy about the way she’s been treated. He idealised her and he loved the children.”

The couple met after Nicole, her children Leah and Luke and parents Jeannette and Michael, moved to the Dominican Republic nine years ago.

She worked as a holiday rep for Thomas Cook and the pair married a year later in May 2007.

She said her daughter was highly thought of and did a lot of charity work there.

Jeannette said Nicole and Jorge were very much in love and that he idolised his wife and her children.

“They had an amazing life and were so happy,” she said.

Jeannette and Michael moved back to Cardiff about five years ago when Leah, 17, and Luke, 16, missed life at home.

The children now live with their grandparents in Rumney and speak to their mum on the phone every day.

She said they are doing "fantastic" but said they are doing it for her sake.

She said: "Leah tells Nicole to keep her chin up but Nicole said it should be me saying that not my daughter telling me.

"We all have our off days, some days I can't even get out of bed."

Jeannette said the phone calls are the only thing keeping Nicole going.

She said: “My daughter is in a bad way, she’s very low. I come off the phone and cry. I can’t believe she’s in that position. The only thing keeping her going now is ringing here.”

Jeannette said she rings four times around lunchtime and another four times at night – at a cost of around £8 a day.

Jeannette said: “She said she has never felt so alone and then apologises that it’s costing more money. But the money doesn’t matter. If I have got to sell the house I’ll sell the house and we would do that. The most important thing is her life. Being a Christian person I wouldn’t be doing all this if I knew she wasn’t innocent.”

Jeannette said she and her husband have spent around £30,000 over the last seven months and that any money is now “exhausted”.

She said this has included thousands of pounds on Nicole’s legal fees as her lawyer appeals to the Supreme Court to get her case moved to another court because of fears of corruption.

But Jeannette said this could take months and so Nicole faces more time waiting in jail.

The couple also had to pay for security to look after Nicole’s home and the home they had bought out there.

Jeannette said: “She had three dogs and left the house that night expecting to go back there later.”

But despite paying around £600 a month for security the couple flew out in December to find both homes had been stripped of everything.

Jeannette said: “She can never go back there. She’s lost everything. Her husband, her dogs and her home.”

The couple sold the properties so they could use the money to help Nicole.

But the couple said they were devastated when the cash cheque, along with the rest of their hand luggage, was stolen from the airport and said they were told it had been cashed in America.

They also have to pay for a doctor to see Nicole and her medication, after she was recently diagnosed with a series of conditions involving inflammation of the bowel.

She added: "We were told her intestine is infected with bacteria. She has also put on a stone in weight because her body is so swollen from the infection."

Jeannette and Michael are now appealing for help in trying to get their daughter back to the UK.

“I want to do anything I possibly can to get my daughter out of the conditions she’s in.

“If she has to stay in prison could they get her to this country, because I know it’s not going to happen overnight, and look at the evidence. We’ve got enough to show that this was an accident.

“If it was held in this country, I know my daughter would walk away anyway because of the evidence.”

She said she has even considered taking her daughter’s plight to Prime Minister David Cameron.

She said: “I have thought about going to stand outside Number 10 to explain the situation.

“I know my daughter is innocent and I will do anything in my power to get her out.

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